A Sydney, Australia abduction experience from 1992, with biological evidence, became the subject of the world's first DNA PCR "alien abduction" related investigation, yielding intriguing results that have suggested fascinating new lines of investigation and speculation.

Born in 1964, in Lebanon, Peter Khoury migrated to Australia in 1973. He met his future wife, Vivian in 1981, marrying in 1990. They have 2 children. What might be Peter's first encounter with a UFO occurred in Lebanon in the summer of 1971 at age 7. He and seven other children had gone up onto the flat rooftop of his neighbour's house to play. Peter was the last to walked through a heavy door that leads onto the roof. He then saw all his friends "frozen" like statues in front of him, while a silent egg-shaped craft hovered above. All eight children later found themselves on the ground floor after some time had elapsed, with no memory of the intervening period.

In Sydney, during February 1988, Peter and Vivian saw a strange light doing extraordinary movements in conjunction with a beam of light effect.

Peter & Vivian Khoury

A frightening and life changing alien abduction experience occurred on July 12, 1988. Khoury had lay on a bed and was overwhelmed by paralysis. A number of beings became apparent around him. One of them, a tall thin golden yellow coloured being, with large black eyes, inserted a long needle like object into the side of his head. Khoury blackout. He regained consciousness with a start and rushed into the adjoining room where he found other family members in a "switched-off" state. Rousing them, Khoury found that while they thought only some 10 minutes had passed, in reality it seemed between 1 to 2 hours had passed. An injury to his head was verified.

At that time Peter Khoury had no real context to anchor his disturbing experience. Eventually he became aware of abduction experiences and entered the UFO field to initially understand what happened to him. Eventually, frustrated with the problems and politics that plagued his association with ufology he formed a support group - the UFO Experience Support Association (UFOESA) during April, 1993.

Despite trying to focus on supporting others, Peter Khoury found that strange experiences had continued for him. In retrospect, the most striking one occurred on July 23, 1992, according to diary entries.

He had been recovering from head injuries received in a job site assault (he worked in the building industry in his own cement rendering business). At about 7 am, having returned to his Sydney suburban home from the train station, after dropping off his wife, Khoury felt unwell and lay down on the bed to sleep. He awoke with a start sometime later, becoming aware of something alighting on the bed. He was shocked to see two strange women kneeling on the end of his bed.

Both were naked. One appeared Nordic and the other Asian. Aspects of their appearance were quite odd. The Nordic female had a very elongated face and a sharply point chin. Her eyes appeared to be blue and 2 to 3 times larger than normal. She had very fine wispy blonde hair that seemed to be oddly blown up. Her skin colour was quite light. The dark brown skinned Asian looking woman seemed to have almost completely black eyes. Her hair was black and set in a firm page-boy style.

Although no normal communication occurred, the Nordic woman seemed to be in charge and Khoury got the impression she was giving the Asian looking woman some sort of instruction. What followed was quite disorientating for Khoury. The Nordic woman, who seemed to be over 6 feet tall and apparently very strong, reached forward and pulled Khoury's head to her breast. He resisted, trying to pull away.

She did this 3 times. Finally Khoury, trying to cope with the shock and disorientating nature of this experience, bit on her nipple apparently swallowing a piece from it. The Nordic woman, although seemingly confused, did not react with any pain and nor was there any sign of blood. She seemed to convey to the other woman that this was not the way things were supposed to happen. Khoury was overcome with a coughing fit. Moments later, looking up again, he found that both women had vanished.

The coughing caused Khoury to go to the bathroom to get a drink of water. When he went to urinate he found it very painful to do so, due to, it turned out, some very fine blonde hair wrapped tightly under his foreskin. Khoury removed the hair and had the foresight to place it in a plastic sachet bag with a seal. He did that because he felt there was no way it should have been there.

It was unlike his wife's hair. Khoury concluded that something extraordinarily bizarre had just occurred and linked the 2 pieces of blonde thin hair (about 10-12 cm & 6-8 cm long) to the strange tall, blonde haired Nordic looking woman. Even though Vivian had been very supportive of him about his 1988 abduction experience, Peter refrained from telling her what occurred for about 2 weeks. She accepted it far better than Peter did, telling him it was something he has no control over and they would deal with it as best as they could.

Like many other abductees Peter Khoury has had a number of experiences. During November, 1996, while lying in bed with Vivian beside him asleep, he felt an energy presence intruding into the room. He opened his eyes. He saw what seemed to be several hooded small figures (similar to his 1988 experience) appearing to come through the mirror. As they came closer Peter experienced paralysis and felt he was being floated horizontally feet first towards the mirror.

Touching the surface of the mirror with his feet felt like he was going into water, like a change of density, not something solid. Khoury felt a sense of electrical static buzzing right through his body. He watched as the reflection of his head approached his face. As soon as they touched, he blacked out. He did not remember anything else other than waking up in the bed again.

There were other episodes in about 1994 or early 1995 involving a light burst or sound of an explosion, this being witnessed in part by Vivian. On another occasion he felt a "pins and needles" paralysis developing. He tried to wake Vivian. He was eventually after great difficulty able to touch her. She woke up and simultaneously it was "like somebody ripped the sheets off him". Peter likened it to as if something was sucked out of him. The feeling had been engulfing him and as soon as he touched Vivian the feeling was gone.

Between 1996 and 1999 Khoury is unaware of any experiences.

In 1996, Peter was hypnotically regressed by Pulitzer prize-winning, Harvard psychiatrist John Mack to try to clarify the 1988 experience. Under Mack's regression Peter described being taken into an illuminated room. He was on a table with one entity above him, speaking to him but with a sound like birds chirping. It was one person - a shadowy tall figure - but the sound seemed like 50 of them. Peter thought at the time, how was he going to remember what the entity told him.

The recollection faded and everything went dark again. That was all that came out in the session. Peter has had a couple of regression sessions. He is not really satisfied with any of the hypnotic recollections and feels more comfortable with the consciously recollected details, such as those of 1988 and 1992.

Because of the bizarre and controversial nature of the 1992 episode, Peter was more comfortable describing his 1988 experience. The strange encounter with the 2 unusual women was discussed and examined in a limited and fragmentary way. It was not until 1996 that I heard from Peter Khoury about the hair sample that had been recovered from what may have been an alien abduction sexual assault case.

By 1998, I began an investigation into the hair sample, when biochemical colleagues agreed to undertake what was the world's first PCR (polymerase Chain Reaction) DNA profiling of biological material implicated in an alien abduction experience. The analysis confirmed the hair came from someone who was biologically close to normal human genetics, but of an unusual racial type - a rare Chinese Mongoloid type - one of the rarest human lineages known, that lies further from the human mainstream than any other except for African pygmies and aboriginals.

There was the strange anomaly of it being blonde to clear instead of black, as would be expected from the Asian type mitochondrial DNA. The study concluded, "The most probable donor of the hair must therefore be as (Khoury) claims: a tall blonde female who does not need much colour in her hair or skin, as a form of protection against the sun, perhaps because she does not require it."

An artist's impression of the blonde haired "nordic" being encountered by Peter Khoury in Sydney during 1992.

The DNA sequence overlayed was extracted from the hair sample recovered by Khoury (from the cover of the International UFO Reporter (IUR), Spring, 1999)

Magnified hair sample showing optical transparency and pronounced mosaic structure. The circles of light are reflections. Photo taken from video (B.Chalker/APEG). The DNA sequence on the left is from the hair shaft.

The original DNA work was done on the shaft of the hair. Fascinating further anomalies were found in the root of the hair. Two types of DNA were found depending on where the mitochondrial DNA testing occurs, namely confirming the rare Chinese type DNA in the hair shaft and indicating a rare possible Basque/Gaelic type DNA in the root section.

The Hair Root DNA Sequence

This was very puzzling and controversial, until a 'Nature Biotechnology' paper appeared in 2000. It revealed recent findings on hair transplanting with previously incompatible hair, using advanced cloning techniques, developed in a possible cure for baldness. We seem to be seeing similar combined or "grafted" DNA in the sample recovered under controversial circumstances by Peter Khoury back in 1992.

Perhaps even more controversial is that we have findings suggestive of nuclear DNA indicating possible viral resistance. The hair sample seems to show it contains 2 deleted genes for CCR5 protein and no intact gene for normal undeleted CCR5 - this CCR5 deletion factor has been implicated in aids resistance. To keep a very complex story somewhat uncomplicated, what seems to be suggested by the range of findings is possible evidence for advanced DNA techniques and DNA anomalies & findings, for which we are only now discovering or starting to make sense of in mainstream biotechnology.

The nature of these genetic findings has lead to some interesting possible connections with ancient cultures, myths and archaeological finds such as the strange Taklamakan mummies in China (tall European like peoples (Celtic?), some of whom had blonde hair) and the stories of the female Basque God Mari and the Gaelic Irish tales of the Tuatha da Danann.

The Tuatha tales describe powerful gods with orange or blonde hair and other unusual attributes. While such cultural and mythic connections are fascinating speculations, they provide for an interesting perspective on the many stories of Nordic type beings implicated in UFO abduction and contact cases.

(left to right)"Statuette in the Hood" - in ivory from the Aurignacian Period, at the Grotte du Pape, Bassempouy ("Stone Age Satuette" by J. Ben, FSR Case Histories (1971)from the Musee des Antiquites Nationales at Saint-Germain-en Laye); artist's impression of the female being in the 1957 Antonio Villas Boas event (with blonde hair, sharp angular chin and blue eyes)(Artist Tony Roberts in "UFOs - the definitive casebook" by J. Spencer (1991); reconstructed impression of the face of the "Beauty of Kroran" mummy from Tarim/Tuklamakan, China, with hair described as "blondish-brown" in colour ("The Tarim Mummies" by J. Mallory & V. Mair (2000); artist's impression of the blonde haired, blue eyed and fair skinned female being encountered by Peter Khoury in 1992.

Mari - the neolithic Goddess of Old Europe and the primary deity in Basque mythology - has many manifestations, including "as a tree that looks like a woman or a tree emitting flames", "a white cloud or rainbow, or a ball of fire in the air", a "sickle of fire, as which she appears crossing the sky" and "seen enveloped in fire, lying down horizontally, moving through the air".

The records from ancient Ireland describe a whole series of invasions. The "Lebor Gabala Erren" ("The Book of the Taking of Ireland" or the "Book of Invasions") , compiled during the 12th century A.D. describes the coming of the mysterious Tuatha de' Danann or Tribe of Danu. They were apparently tall, blond or red-haired strangers, "expert in the arts of pagan cunning", who supposedly interbred with the locals, while teaching them many kinds of useful skills. The Lebor Gabala records their dramatic entrance to Ireland as follows:

"In this wise they came, in dark clouds from northern islands of the world. They landed on the mountains of Conmaicne Rein in Connachta, and they brought a darkness over the sun for three days and three nights. Gods were their men of arts, and non-gods their husbandmen."

A gold ship model from 1st century BC Broighter, Ireland. There are many stories of aerial ships or "demon ships" ("loinger demnacda") in the Irish annuals.

Extracts from the Lebor Gabala (top & centre) and an artist's impression of a likeness of the Tuatha people

According to the mythic tales the Tuatha de' Danann were advanced enough to arrive in western Ireland (near modern Connacht) by air. They divided into two social classes: "gods" as teachers of medicine, smithing, communication or druidry, and "non-gods" as farmers or shepherds. Although no one knows for certain what the Tuatha looked like, descriptions, such as of their female war-leader Eriu, indicate tall attractive people with pale skin, high foreheads, long red hair and large blue eyes.

Other descriptions indicate blonde, golden hair with blue eyes. The blonde haired woman in the 1957 abduction of Antonio Villas Boas also had red body hair (pubic hair). She seems remarkably like Peter's female visitor and the description of Eriu. If the Tuatha cross-bred with local humans, they would have left hybrid descendants who look somewhat like themselves.

Further focused DNA analyses of biological samples implicated in alleged alien abduction experiences will help determine the reality behind the claims of abductions and the validity of speculations driven by DNA, historical, cultural and mythic connections.

Some limited funding has permitted the purchase of specialised equipment to further this fascinating and groundbreaking work. Funding has permitted a DNA research presence, co-ordinated by the APEG, in a friendly laboratory facility.